• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson yesterday said that he has no inside information that Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez is being considered as the next secretary of Department of Interior and Local Government, should incumbent Secretary Benhur Abalos join the senatorial race, in the elections next year.
Maybe that’s possible, Lacson said, in reply to a question that Benitez was among those being considered for the Cabinet position.
I don’t have any inside information about that, he stressed.
Lacson, however, disclosed on Wednesday that Secretary Abalos is bent on running for a Senate seat.
If he runs for the position of senator, he has to resign from his present executive position, the governor said.
The filing of Certificate of Candidacy for the 2025 midterm elections will be from October 1 to 8.
Leaders of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas and allied political parties, including the Lakas-CMD, Nationalist People’s Coalition, Nacionalista Party, and the National Unity Party, recently met at Malacañang to strategize for the upcoming midterm elections.
The name of Abalos, a member of the PFP, was among those being considered to be part of the administration’s Senate slate for the 2025 polls.
The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, of which Lacson is a member, had earlier endorsed Abalos to run for senator in the upcoming midterm elections.*